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Endgame

On March 25, 2022, Triple H—on ESPN—announced that ever since he had a cardiac scare in August of last year, he decided to retire from in-ring competition.

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Triple H will forever be on my Mount Rushmore of the WWE Attitude Era along with the Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the Undertaker. I remember seeing him not only as a singles competitor winning gold on Raw (even during the “Raw Is War” era) and SmackDown premium live events (or “pay-per-view” events as I still call them) such as WrestleMania as well as fighting as the “Cerebral Assassin” and “The Game” in the WWE, but also during his time with well-known teams D-Generation X, the Kliq, and Evolution. Not only was he great as an in-ring competitor, but also when he pioneered the idea of converting the black-and-gold NXT from a competition show to a brand that still exists—especially as a multicolored brand—today.

Just like the wrestlers that competed with him as well as looked up to him, I too thank Triple H for everything he has done as a competitor as well as how he helped shaped WWE—including the NXT brand—in later years. Thank you for the matches and memories.

ICW Fight Club

Our first stop is the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland for an episode of ICW Fight Club.

While the WWE is getting ready for WrestleMania weekend, ICW is getting ready (regardless of how far away it is) for an April event of their own which is—similar to Impact Wrestling’s Lockdown—ICW Barred II. So far, we have three matches already made for Barred II with one of them yet to be confirmed, which is Jason Reed vs. Chris Bungard.

Storylines include Saqib Ali improving his run as a singles competitor, even with Chris Toal in tow being a modern-day Jimmy Hart megaphone and all. He had a good matchup with Caleb Valhalla in the beginning of this week’s episode (unless you count the “previously on…” segment and Billy Kirkwood, Simon Cassidy, and Jen Louise welcoming us to ICW Fight Club as the beginning instead of the opening match), and afterwards, Toal urged Ali to go for the ICW Zero-G Championship that’s currently held by Dylan Thorn of the Manifesto. Ali has done well in both tag team and singles competition on ICW for a while, and it would be nice to see him win gold in the near future.

The Kings of the North are nowadays vicious heels in ICW’s tag team division besides the current ICW Tag Team Champions. They proved it to us when they came to ICW late last year, going through tag teams as well as defeating the Nine9 twice in two different special events; one involved a knockout to Jack Morris at Fear & Loathing XIII (leading to the championship win), and another recently involved a casket at Square Go! I indeed agree that Bonesaw & Damien Corvin are indeed a dangerous team to watch whether it’s on ICW or Progress (even though I saw them make two Progress appearances—at the time I started watching Progress, ICW, and wXw more often—last year in an empty Theatre Peckham in London, England per se), even after we saw them go at it with another team similar to the champions—The Meat Wagon—this week; the current tag team champions are a two-man powerhouse to keep an eye on.

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I got a feeling that Molly Spartan will fight Angel Hayze for the ICW Women’s Championship one more time, and I would love to see it take place at ICW Barred II. The storyline is that Molly gets sick and tired of ICW management coercing her to “jump through hoops” and vowing to take, instead of earn, the shot at the title that Angel is currently carrying. Seeing her clash with Angel for the gold one more time does indeed sound like a good idea to me, even if it’s not written in stone yet.

The main event match for the ICW Zero-G Championship was my favorite match of the episode. In the main event we saw Manifesto member Dylan Thorn defend the title against Vaughn Vertigo; Vertigo, a native of Canada who has been a pro wrestler for nine years, made his debut that night. It was a pretty good match, especially for someone new to ICW like Vertigo; it reminds me of the time when Kushida defended the now defunct NXT Cruiserweight Championship against newcomers, first Carmelo Hayes and then Trey Baxter in the next title defense. In the end, just like Kushida retaining the title in those two aforementioned matches, Thorn retained the ICW Zero-G Championship even with very little interference from Alexander Darwin MacAllan. Not only does his win over the debuting veteran Vertigo help build his run as the Zero-G champion, but—just like what we saw in the last episode courtesy of Eddie Castle and Grant McIvor—also gets the sinister Manifesto ready for their Barred II matchup against former Zero-G champion Daz Black and three “martyrs” (according to ADM) of his choosing.

Here are the match results from Glasgow…

Match #1: Saqib Ali (w/ Chris Toal) defeated Caleb Valhalla

During the match, when Toal distracted Valhalla with his megaphone, Valhalla argued with him before placing him on the apron until Toal slapped him. Ali won with a Claymore (ala Drew McIntyre). My score: 2/5

Match #2: The Meat Wagon defeated the Kings of the North

…in a non-title match by disqualification in almost three minutes. Near the end, the Meat Wagon went for the Sinergizer until Bonesaw hit them with a steel chair; referee Sean McLaughlin tried to stop the ICW Tag Team Champions until Bonesaw and Damien Corvin took him down, causing the DQ before the champions continued to beat down the Meat Wagon. No score.

Match #3: Molly Spartan defeated Lizzy Evo with a pop-up powerbomb (ala Kevin Owens).

My score: 2.5/5

Match #4: “The Outlaw” Stevie James defeated Aaron Echo.

Levi and Sweeney watched from the audience, and towards the end, Sweeney distracted the referee while Levi came in and hit Echo with a missile dropkick; this led to James picking up the win after hitting Echo with the Black Swan DDT (or as Edge called it the “Edgecution” or “Impaler”). My score: 3/5

Main event: Dylan Thorn (w/ Alexander Darwin MacAllan) defeated Vaughn Vertigo

…with the Crown of Thorns to retain the ICW Zero-G Championship; post-match, ADM hit Vertigo with a chokeslam backbreaker, then Thorn walked over the challenger as he and ADM were leaving. My score: 3.5/5

wXw We Love Wrestling 27

We stay in Europe, but this time, we head to the Forum in Bielefeld, Germany for the 27th episode of wXw We Love Wrestling.

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This week’s episode—that took place on February 19, 2022—was also known as “Road To 16 Carat Gold”, because there were two spots left in the 16 Carat Gold tournament that took place in March of this year. One competitor would win in two rounds of qualifying in Group A, and one competitor would do the same thing in Group B; both Group A and Group B winners would then automatically qualify for the two spots in that tournament. In Group A were Goldenboy Santos, Norman Harras, James Runyan and Peter Tihanyi. In Group B were Hektor Invictus, Tim Stübing, Dennis “Ca$h” Dullnig and Anil Marik.

Storylines in the qualifiers not only showed Dullnig’s character acting paranoid by believing that he and Invictus would win the tournament together as if it were the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic instead of a singles tournament, but also Marik trying to forget about him and Robert Dreissker losing in a two-on-three steel cage match to the “family” of Vincent Heisenberg, Maggot and Baby Allison in night 2 of Back to the Roots and instead focus on qualifying for the 16 Carat Gold tournament.

My favorite matches for the episode were one of the qualifying matches that took place—Runyan and Tihanyi—as well as one of the tag team matches that occurred in the episode, which is Rott & Flott against Dreissker and Oskar. This qualifying match showed that Tihanyi not only had what it takes to enter the tournament, but also that he was able to pick up another win (two wins actually) during his wXw tenure; he kind of reminds me of Danny Black on Progress, where the up-and comer Black had trouble picking up another win until Progress Chapter 129 in a four-way dance.

Onto the tag team match that I also liked, Nikita Charisma and Michael Schenkenberg can prove to be a devious team—as I have seen when I started watching wXw in spring of last year—when it comes to pulling off victories left and right. Plus, Dreissker appeared to do well having Oskar as a tag team partner as it appears that both Dreissker and Marik are currently not working as a tag team due to Marik trying to forget about the aforementioned cage match; I don’t think the wXw Wrestling Academy team of Dreissker and Marik have split up as it appears that Dreissker wants Marik to focus on not stumbling or think about the cage match when it comes to competing.

Onto the match results from Bielefeld…

Match #1: Norman Harras defeated Goldenboy Santos in round 1 of the Group B qualifier

Santos went for the Midas Touch clothesline, but Harras countered with a rollup and—with a handful of tights—won. My score: 2.5/5

Match #2: Peter Tihanyi defeated James Runyan in round 1 of the Group B qualifier with a 450 splash.

My score: 3.5/5

Match #3: Hektor Invictus defeated Tim Stübing in round 1 of the Group A qualifier.

Dennis “Ca$h” Dullnig appeared at ringside to support—as well as annoy—Invictus during the match. Near the end when the referee and Invictus weren’t looking, Dullnig hit Stübing with Invictus’ flag before Invictus picked up the win; afterwards, Invictus saw Dullnig with the now dented flag and wasn’t impressed with his actions. My score: 2.5/5

Match #4: Dennis “Ca$h” Dullnig defeated Anil Marik in round 1 of the Group A qualifier

Invictus stayed at ringside until the referee ejected him for interfering; not only did he surprise Dullnig by tripping, but also distracted the referee when Marik was pinning his opponent. Near the end, Marik climbed to the top rope until he slipped, giving Dullnig an advantage before defeating Marik with a double underhook piledriver; post-match, Dullnig believed he qualified for the 16 Carat Gold tournament with Invictus until Andy Mallman—who interviewed him—told the delusional Dullnig that he needs to beat Invictus to qualify for the tournament. My score: 1.5/5

Match #5: Rott & Flott defeated Oskar & Robert Dreissker

…after hitting Oskar with an elevated DDT. After the match, Rott & Flott celebrated their win backstage until Oskar argued with them before Dreissker appeared; Dreissker read Oskar the riot act, telling him that he had “no business yelling”, blaming him for how he performed in the match. My score: 3.5/5

Match #6: Ava Everett defeated Gaya Glass

Towards the end, Ava yanked the nose ring off of Gaya before defeating her with a Nikki A.S.H. neckbreaker. My score: 1/5

Match #7: Peter Tihanyi defeated Norman Harras

…in the final round of the Group B qualifier to enter the 16 Carat Gold tournament. Harras kicked the middle rope into Tihanyi crotching him prior to the match until the two brawled at ringside. Tihanyi won with a standing Sliced Bread #2. After the match, Tihanyi—who became the first Hungarian to enter the 16 Carat Gold—told Andy Mallman that he was going to win the tournament. My score: 1.75/5

Match #8: Dennis “Ca$h” Dullnig defeated Hektor Invictus

…in the final round of the Group A qualifier to enter the 16 Carat Gold tournament. Earlier, Dullnig tried to take the easy way out by having himself and Invictus lose via double count out to have them enter the tournament together until Invictus ran back in when the count went up to eight. Towards the end, Invictus threw the ring bell into the ring, and then—when the referee was putting it away—attempted to use his flag as a weapon until he and Dullnig had a tug of war with the flag. Dullnig ended up hitting Invictus with the flag, and then hugged him while feeling sorry for him until—giving me a flashback from 2000 when Eddie Guerrero hugging Chyna while unknowingly pinning her to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship—Dullnig pinned Invictus for the win while hugging him. Post-match, Dullnig asked for a replay or to have the match continued while Andy Mallman congratulated him until Invictus chased him to the back, dented flag and all. My score: 3/5

Main event: Stephanie Maze & Fast Time Moodo defeated Maggot & Baby Allison

During the match, Moodo held up Maggot to have Stephanie kick him in the head before Moodo hit Maggot with a Pedigree (a coincidence since we learned that Triple H has retired from in-ring competition). Near the end, Allison worked on Stephanie’s left leg—that she injured back in early 2021—until Stephanie countered with a rollup and won. My score: 2.25/5

NXT

Not only do we go back to the month of March 2022, but we also head to Orlando, Florida for an episode of NXT.

Even though the NXT roster was days away from NXT Stand & Deliver like Raw and SmackDown was for WrestleMania, NXT had some short filler matches and a lot of promos besides some matches that were related to S&D. On the other hand, it was still an alright pre-WrestleMania episode of NXT.

It turns out that Toxic Attraction members Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne will defend the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship after all despite what happened last week when Kay Lee Ray & Io Shirai threw in a monkey wrench (RIP Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins) by cashing in their Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic win for the same thing Cora Jade has for S&D which is a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship that Mandy Rose currently holds. While Toxic Attraction showed that they surprised Dakota Kai by attacking her DRTTC tag team partner Wendy Choo (by pulling out some of Wendy’s belongings) because Wendy and Dakota were not happy about TA helping them in the final round of the tournament, Dakota ran in and went after the trio until she got help from someone she reunited with, and that’s Raquel Gonzalez. Raquel and Dakota fought the three out of the ring before getting back together and vowing to win the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship at S&D.

Tommaso Ciampa confirmed that his match at S&D against Tony D’Angelo will indeed be his last, and like I said a couple weeks ago, I too believe he’s heading to either Raw or SmackDown; Ciampa proved it by getting up from his chair and then folding it before placing it against the wall, and the chair read “9/9/2015-4/2/2022.”

Remember an episode of NXT: LVL UP where Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen lost to the Grizzled Young Veterans after Jensen got distracted by a female fan in attendance? That fan is actually Sofia Cromwell, who was also shown on WWE’s social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter approaching Robert Stone to join his brand. She appeared on this week’s episode of NXT watching Von Wagner fight Chase University student Bodhi Hayward. Even though in storylines things go awry for the Robert Stone Brand dating back to before NXT converted from black-and-gold to multicolored when they had Aliyah, Vanessa Borne and Chelsea Green just to name a few, I wonder if Sofia becomes a good acquisition for Stone just like Wagner has.

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The main event for this week’s episode was my favorite match; it was a triple threat match that was also what the motorsports world would call a “last chance qualifier”, featuring the three non-winners of the qualifying matches Roderick Strong, A-Kid and Cameron Grimes. Grimes—who promised his late father that he would win championships and headline events such as S&D—emerged victorious in this match to get the final spot in the NXT North American Championship ladder match, and I would love to see him win gold especially at S&D; he’s one of the few NXT competitors that still has black-and-gold in them (been in NXT since the 2019 Breakout Tournament) that deserves to win a title even if it’s the NXT North American Championship.

Here are the match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Imperium defeated LA Knight & MSK

Knight, Wes Lee and Nash Carter blindsided Gunther, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel at the entry as soon as the episode started. Near the end, Gunther yanked Carter—who went for a springboard maneuver—off the ropes until Knight fought the “Ring General” out of the venue. Then, back inside, Aichner hit Carter with a charging clothesline (ala JBL) for the win. Afterwards, the Creed Brothers appeared and saw both Aichner & Barthel and MSK. My score: 3.75/5

Match #2: Ivy Nile (w/ Malcolm Bivens) defeated Tiffany Stratton in a couple minutes

Near the end, Tiffany saw smoke grow from the entryway until Sarray emerged from it, leading to Ivy making Tiffany submit to a standing dragon sleeper. My score: 1/5

Match #3: Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen (w/ Fallon Henley) defeated Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza (w/ Elektra Lopez)

Towards the end, Wilde went for a 450 until Briggs caught him by the throat and hit him with a chokeslam! Then, Briggs & Jensen won after hitting Wilde with a high-low. My score: 1.5/5

Match #4: Von Wagner (w/ Robert Stone) defeated Bodhi Hayward (w/ Andre Chase)

Jacket Time had their own commentary table, next to Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett, for the match; however, they were also distracted by Sofia Cromwell who was in the audience. Wagner won with a Death Valley Driver; post-match, Wagner fought Ikemen Jiro and Kushida into the ring, then took Ikemen Jiro’s jacket and ripped it in half. My score: 1.5/5

Match #5: Joe Gacy (w/ Harland) defeated Draco Anthony in a couple minutes

Quincy Elliott was in the audience, staring at Harland. Gacy won with a handspring clothesline. My score: 0.5/5

Match #6: Nikkita Lyons defeated Sloane Jacobs in almost two minutes with a leg split leg drop

Afterwards, Lash Legend appeared on the screen and said that she had unfinished business with Nikkita. No score.

Main event: Cameron Grimes defeated Roderick Strong (w/ Malcolm Bivens) and A-Kid

…in a triple threat match to qualify for the NXT North American Championship ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver. Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams joined Joseph and Barrett on commentary during the match; also, Solo Sikoa watched from the entryway, as did Santos Escobar and Grayson Waller (with Sanga in tow) in the audience. Near the end, Strong hit A-Kid with the End of Heartache until Grimes hit Strong with the Cave In to pick up the win and final ladder match spot. Afterwards, all five ladder match competitors—Hayes, Grimes, Sikoa, Escobar, and Waller—argued over who would win the ladder match until the five brawled in the ring; Sanga joined in the fight—as did Wilde and Mendoza who ran in as the brouhaha began—as the episode came to a close. My score: 4.75/5

NXT UK

Now, we return to the United Kingdom, but this time we head to the BT Sports Studios for an episode of NXT UK.

While getting ready for next week’s NXT United Kingdom Championship match between Ilja Dragunov and Roderick Strong, Noam Dar was finally able to defeat all three members of Gallus in three NXT UK Heritage Cup defenses by scoring a 2-1 win over Mark Coffey. I’m curious to see who else will go after Dar and the cup now that Dar—as well as his colleague Sha Samuels—have checked off all three members of Gallus in those cup defenses. Dar does indeed make a pretty good cocky heel, especially as the Heritage Cup champion as he has shown us ever since NXT UK was born.

Not only did I enjoy the Heritage Cup match, but also the second match Moustache Mountain made for the team of Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith; that match of course was between Trent Seven and Ashton Smith. I’m going to take it easy on the “heel turn” comments and references this time, mainly because of a questionable finish that we saw.

We also saw two debuts on NXT UK this week; one was Tate Mayfairs whom we’ve seen on Progress, and another being—whom we have seen on ICW Fight Club this week as well—Lizzy Evo.

Onto the match results from London…

Match #1: Xia Brookside defeated Amale

Towards the end, Amale fought Xia at ringside until Lizzy Evo took down Amale from the crowd, leading to Xia winning with the Broken Wings. My score: 1.5/5

Match #2: Trent Seven (w/ Tyler Bate) defeated Ashton Smith (w/ Oliver Carter)

Seven attempted to use the ropes for leverage, and then instead used the tights to pin Smith for the win. Post-match, Moustache Mountain and Smith & Carter argued backstage until Sid Scala summoned them to his office next week. My score: 2.5/5

Match #3: Tate Mayfairs defeated Kenny Williams

Near the end, Williams threw Mayfairs out of the ring and attempted to bring him back in until Sam Gradwell emerged from under the ring; Gradwell threw Mayfairs back in the ring while blocking Williams’ path, leading to Mayfairs winning by count out. My score: 1/5

Main event: Noam Dar (w/ Sha Samuels) defeated Mark Coffey (w/ Joe Coffey) 2-1 to retain the NXT UK Heritage Cup

Dar took the 1-0 lead with a rollup in round 2, Mark tied it up with a snap enzuigiri after taking down Samuels in round 3, and Dar won 2-1 in round 5 with the Nova Roller after Samuels interfered. My score: 2.5/5

NXT: LVL UP

Finally, we head back to Orlando, Florida where it’s unofficially Saturday, April 2 at 12:47AM EST (even though the show was taped on the same day NXT took place per se) because it’s time for NXT: LVL UP.

(NOTE: The reason why it aired at that time is because the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame was shown at 10PM EST after SmackDown ended; speaking of which, congratulations to the Undertaker, Vader, Queen Sharmell, Shad Gaspard, and the Steiner Brothers for being inducted into the Hall of Fame!)

Both the opening and second matches were better than the main event in my opinion. Not only did we see a nice matchup between Xyon Quinn and Dante Chen, but also a fine match between Kayden Carter and Tatum Paxley.

The main event was alright even though we saw Damon Kemp finally get his first win in his WWE career; I’m hoping that Kemp keeps on picking up wins ever since he finally broke his losing streak this week since he appears to be a pretty good newcomer and competitor.

Here are the match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Xyon Quinn defeated Dante Chen

After countering Chen’s crossbody with a Samoan driver, Quinn won with a charging forearm; both men showed sportsmanship before and after the match. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Kayden Carter (w/ Kacy Catanzaro) defeated Tatum Paxley with a guillotine legdrop

My score: 2/5

Main event: Damon Kemp defeated James Drake (w/ Zack Gibson)

After Gibson interfered, Edris Enofé and Malik Blade appeared at the entryway and got the Grizzled Young Veterans distracted, leading to Kemp rolling up Drake for his career first win. My score: 1.5/5

Next time…

It’s WrestleMania weekend! Not only do I look back at nights 1 and 2 of WrestleMania, but also NXT Stand & Deliver as well as three shows that have “NXT” in their names.

Plus, there might be some shows from outside the United States (ICW, Progress, and/or wXw); I didn’t see any of those shows listed on what’s coming to Peacock (according to WWE.com) as soon as this week began, but like many people have been saying ever since the 2020s began…anything can happen.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment! I’ll see you next time!

(Photos shown in the newsletter are from WWE, ICW and wXw.)